Forum explores native mascot controversy

Two questions Tuesday during a forum on using Native American imagery as school mascots were: What does it mean to honor someone and who gets to decide?

A five-person panel discussed that question and others. The forum was hosted by the Institute for Ethics and the Institute for Education at Adrian College. Fritz Detwiler, head of the Institute for Ethics, moderated the discussion.

About 50 people attended the event in Dawson Auditorium.

The context for the forum was an announcement in February by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights that it had filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights asking it to prohibit the use of Native American mascots and imagery in kindergarten through 12th-grade schools across Michigan.

The complaint cites 35 Michigan school districts — including Clinton and Tecumseh — for alleged discrimination.

The schools' teams are known as the Clinton Redskins and the Tecumseh Indians.

Eric Long of Tecumseh said Tecumseh schools uses the name Indians for its sports teams because the historical Tecumseh was an Indian.

"I really have a problem with people who want to come in and solve a problem and paint it with one solid brush," Long said.

Michael Miller, who is a Tecumseh resident and editor of the Toledo Free Press, said the intent in Tecumseh is to emulate the best qualities of the man Tecumseh. He also said state and federal officials should not decide community standards.

Daniel Levy of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights argued that the use of native names as mascots has been shown to hurt students in the classroom, and that is why the department took the action it did.

"If, in fact, students are being hurt in the classroom, it doesn't matter if we mean well," Levy said.

Abel Cooper of the Leh-Nah-Weh Native American Organization said his Indian tradition teaches that all people should be respected and let to "be as they are."

"If we were treated that way, we would not see our warriors from 200 years ago depicted as a mascot for an athletic team," Cooper said.

Jeanette Henagan, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People of Lenawee County, said the use of names such as "warriors" limits the role of Indian men, who engaged in many activities besides fighting.

Cooper said he was told by Indian elders that the term "redskin" was a way of refering to the scalps of Indians taken for bounty money. Indian people have always been offended by the term, he said.

"When we see or hear that term, we don't see a football team, we don't see a football game being played, we don't see any honor," Cooper said. "All we see is the bloody scalps that were hacked off our men, women and children."

A Clinton community representative who had been invited to participate in the forum was not able to attend.

Long cited a list of mascot names from schools around the country, including the "Washington Generals," "Confederates," "Devils," "Pirates," "Martians," "Hillbillies" and one school that calls their teams the "Half-breeds."

"There's not a nickname ... that somebody can't complain about and say they find it offensive," Long said.

"Hopefully, there are not any bi-racial children in that community," Henagan said about the name "Half-breeds."

Levy said it's a question of whether something is harmful. There is no evidence that generals or pirates suffer from the use of those names, he said.

After the forum, audience member Terry Lighthall of Tecumseh said he learned something.

"If I put it in one word, for me I guess I'd say it was very educational," Lighthall said.

Adrian College student Molly Rademacher said she comes from Kiowa, Colo., and her school worked with the Kiowa Indians in designing a mascot.

She said that by agreement, the school would have to give up its name if the Kiowa Indians didn't want it used.

"I feel it needs to be addressed with the people that you're trying to represent," Rademacher said.